


Enough For One Life

by thegrumblingirl



Category: Bones (TV)
Genre: 6x08, 6x09, Booth POV, Booth figures out that maybe (just maybe) he can have everything he wants, Coda, Episode Tag, Established Relationship, F/F, F/M, Feelings Realization, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I love Hannah and I want her to stay, Multi, Pre-OT3, Pre-Relationship, Supportive Partners, they just wasted that chemistry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-20
Updated: 2021-01-20
Packaged: 2021-03-18 22:08:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28874343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegrumblingirl/pseuds/thegrumblingirl
Summary: As Booth holds Hannah's hand, he watches Bones and Parker and then looks back at Hannah, who in turn is watching him. She glances at Bones and Parker laughing at her attempts to clean him up with a broad smile. She turns back to Booth and raises her eyebrows, still grinning. There’s something in her eyes he doesn’t understand. But he likes it. Hannah likes Bones. That’s good, right?
Relationships: Seeley Booth/Hannah Burley, Seeley Booth/Temperance Brennan, Temperance Brennan/Hannah Burley, Temperance Brennan/Seeley Booth/Hannah Burley
Kudos: 16





	Enough For One Life

**Author's Note:**

> I CANNOT BELIEVE that Bones is making me write fic in the year 2021. I CAN'T BELIEVE.  
> I never watched Bones religiously (hah, Booth, geddit?) when it was on, but now that it's on streaming services everywhere, I decided to binge. And I'm just. COME ON.

At the diner, Booth looks up from his and Hannah's joint hands and sees Brennan look away and lean over to wipe the chocolate off Parker's chin instead. Parker lets her easily, like she's done it a hundred times before. He leans into the touch, and Booth sees Brennan's slight smile as she scrubs at Parker's face with a napkin. She wouldn't call herself good with kids — not like Hannah, who just lacks experience. Bones always says that she lacks warmth. She's not given to noticing things beyond the fact: acts of care, of care- _taking_ , are not intuitive to her. She sees the chocolate on someone's face, but she's more likely to let you run around with it for half the day before telling you on her way out the door. Grabbing a napkin to help you out, not so much. But for Parker, she makes the effort. He's noticed that — he's been noticing that, lately. Well, not just since he came back from Afghanistan, but before. Back when... back when he still thought they had a chance. Back when he was still too chicken to say anything.

He's glad he did, in the end. As much as it hurt at the time. Still does, some days. That little twinge he gets when he sees her, unobscured. Those few and far between moments when he knows exactly what she’s thinking.

As Booth holds Hannah's hand, he watches Bones and Parker and then looks back at Hannah, who in turn is watching him. She glances at Bones and Parker laughing at her attempts to clean him up with a broad smile. She turns back to Booth and raises her eyebrows, still grinning. There’s something in her eyes he doesn’t understand. But he likes it. Hannah likes Bones. That’s good, right?

After Woodland, they take her home. She's quiet on the whole ride over to her place, Hannah hovering in the space between their seats to talk to her quietly while Booth drives, doing his best not to lose the car to the rain still coming down with how often he glances over at Bones in the passenger seat. They make sure she eats something, put her to bed, and make themselves comfortable in the guest room. It's never a question whether they stay. They'll take care of her, whatever it takes. Booth calls Parker before they turn in, letting him and Rebecca know where they are and that Bones is okay. He says to say hi in the morning, and to give her a hug. Parker knows that Booth is one of the few people Bones leans on.

He doesn't think about the fact that he hasn't hugged her since before they left last year.

It's long past midnight when they're woken up not by screams or cries, as Booth had silently feared, but by someone sitting on the edge of the bed, close to Booth. He's instantly awake, instinct and battle senses, and so is Hannah. She turns on the light and they find Bones.

She still looks a little rattled, but Booth recognises the set of her shoulders. Determined.

"I should have given us a chance," she says, and her voice sounds strangled with unshed tears, but her eyes are clear, focused. They're filled with regret, though. "I should have given you a chance, to prove—."

She stops herself, and it gives Booth a moment to catch up with what she's _saying_. Oh, God, _now_? But he doesn't stop her. He never could.

"I had nothing to lose," she says, and Booth isn't sure that's true. Her independence, her solitude, her... rationality. She surprises him when she continues, "I had nothing to lose because I had everything to gain. You offered me the world, and I-I said no, because I was scared."

"Bones," he says, gently, because it's the only way he can say her name when she's like this, and the only way he can say her name most of the rest of the time, too. He's _very_ aware of Hannah still curled into his side — curling closer, actually, now; to be able to reach across his body and put her hand on Bones' arm.

"You deserve to be happy, Temperance," she says, and Booth nearly jumps when her voice is a mirror of his own. Gentle, patient. Like she's known her as long as he has. Perhaps she has, if only because Booth has told her so much about his partner.

They've been... talking about her. Hannah happy to ask questions, and Booth happy to answer them, and somehow it never occurred to him that it should feel awkward. Or that it wasn't just Hannah's professional curiosity coming through, or his own propensity to talk about Bones any chance he got — because he loves her, and he’s proud of her.

He loves her.

Oh, Geez.

He’s never told Hannah about _that_ part of their partnership. Perhaps he never had to — guess that conversation has gone on ahead without him, huh. (And is he ever glad that Sweets isn’t around for any of this.)

Caught between Bones now looking over at Hannah and Hannah solid as a rock beside him, he takes a quiet moment to panic, just him, in his head, having a good, quick mental breakdown about how he should have seen this coming but didn't, and how _somehow_ , this doesn’t feel like the end of the world.

And about how it feels more like a beginning.

**Author's Note:**

> Also — the polygamy episode in S6? While Hannah and Bones are both RIGHT THERE? GOD.


End file.
